God help you if you're unemployed.

[biffvernon]

She received 60 CVs in paper by mail?

Yes, with several of the applicants following up their application by calling in person. She sent the rejection letters by post on real paper. Some folk still do these things properly.

[RenewableCandy]

Most jobs need more than just drones

I think you'll find that's no longer true. "Most jobs", numbers-wise, are pretty basic: cleaning, driving, call-centres, shop staff, etc. And while they do require some skills, they don't require much in the way of thought or problem-solving.

[RenewableCandy]

The Government’s new benefit regime, Universal Credit, will depend on the largest and most complex IT database ever constructed in history.

So I expect it'll cost billions and be quietly withdrawn after a 5 year or so period of utter failure which will be lovingly documented in the back pages of Private Eye.

[JohnB]

So I expect it'll cost billions and be quietly withdrawn after a 5 year or so period of utter failure which will be lovingly documented in the back pages of Private Eye.

With all the deaths from cold, lack of homes and food, and suicides by people who just can't cope with with having no money to live on, that a failed benefits system could bring, I assume Private Eye will report on it in the loving way they did Idi Amin, when he was reducing Uganda's population in my youth!

[RenewableCandy]

It will put a lot of people in that interesting situation where one has nothing to lose. Which reminds me of a conversation with a flatmate many years ago in which it transpired that a friend of hers (not me!) had said that, if ever given "x months to live", he would set out to kill maggie thatcher.

Looked at from HMG's point of view, that's not a good place to be!

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Yes, with several of the applicants following up their application by calling in person. She sent the rejection letters by post on real paper. Some folk still do these things properly.

Where as I'd have parsed the CVs for phone numbers and email addresses giving the individuals concerned a faster response and making a smaller impact on the environment.

[biffvernon]

And you probably wouldn't make bread by hand-kneading and use organic ingredients even when the customer doesn't know or care, just because it's better that way.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

And you probably wouldn't make bread by hand-kneading and use organic ingredients even when the customer doesn't know or care, just because it's better that way.

Sounds yummy.

Is that proper hand ground flour from wheat harvested properly by scythe and then baked in a proper charcoal fired clay oven?

[biffvernon]

No need to be an extremist. She uses flour stone-ground in a nearby windmill. I doubt whether combine harvesters will ever be abandoned for cereal farming as their EROEI is rather good.

[the_lyniezian]

I have had a look at it and frankly it looks awful. I am uncomfortable with the spying aspect but I suppose it might give me a well-needed kick up the backside, I don't know.

The search function meanwhile is worse than before. You can't localise it to the level you used to, and I don't want to search through jobs which are all the way up in Tyneside or worse, just because it's in the region. I don't have the luxury of my own car. There are no details of how to apply without clicking the "apply" button and going into the Jobcentre and using the Jobpoints is no better- it just gives you a link to the website.

Luckily I'm on the Work Programme [EDIT: that's something I'll rarely say!] so the Jobcentre themselves basically stopped harassing me, though I'll have to see what the outside provider has to say about it when I go for an appointment later on in the week. It's something I'd like to discuss properly before I sign my life away.

Other than that I'm sticking to the third-party websites to do my jobseeking. Apparently just as good according to the advisers at job club.

[kenneal - lagger]

.............. baked in a proper charcoal fired clay oven?

A proper bread oven is fired by faggots, bundles of small twigs tightly wrapped together that are routinely wasted now as they are usually burnt at the felling site as "trash". Twigs also dry out very quickly. They produce a very hot rapid burn to heat the oven quickly and cheaply. Charcoal has not been used very often for cooking in this country, as far as I know, as it's a very wasteful fuel: half the calorific value is used to burn off the residual moisture using the volatile gases and the heat from that process is wasted. Most of the charcoal produced in the UK has been for metal working either in a forge or for smelting iron and other metals.

[Catweazle]

A proper bread oven is fired by faggots, bundles of small twigs tightly wrapped together

Slight deviation - they make great firelighters. My method of making them is to grab 6 or so straight freshly cut twigs, one of which should be longer than the others and green. Tap them on something to get the cut ends level, then snap them all at 8" and fold back along the length, snap again and fold back again so the bundle is getting thicker. Repeat until only the longer twig remains, wrap this tightly around the bundle several times then pull it tightly between the ends of the folded twigs so it jams in place.

This is surprisingly quick to do. Put in a dry place with airflow for 6 months, if there is no airflow it will go mouldy and be messy and possibly unsafe to handle.

[Janco2]

Still on the deviation!
We always make our own faggots every winter from the twigs left behind after coppicing branches. We use old baler twine to fasten the bundles and leave them in situ until the late summer when we bring them under cover in the old airy barn ready for lighting the woodburner in the winter. Use them to get barbecues going too.
Never use firelighters. A bit of rubbish mail, old flour and sugar bags soon light the twigs and fire is away with no problems.

[the_lyniezian]

What has baking bread and lighting fires got to do with unemployment and the JCP?

[kenneal - lagger]

What has baking bread and lighting fires got to do with unemployment and the JCP?

Who knows??? But this is Powerswitch, isn't it!